Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Laminated Paper Dolls!

Another check off my Christmas list this year! I just finished two sets of paper dolls made for my daughters and nieces. I've had these in the back of my mind for awhile now. I made them using the paperdoll cartridge with my cricut. This cartridge should be a first purchase it you own one! I use it to make all kinds of things for projects, and everytime I do my daughter begs me to make extra pieces for her to play with. You can even make tabs on the clothing to use a real paper dolls. She would play with them for a few hours, but at the end they were ripped, bent, wet, you name it. So I wanted to make her a set that would last. After cutting tond of pieces I ran them through the laminator and then hand cut around them. I then added velcro.



Here are some people!



And here's the back view of an outfit to show you how they stick. To line them up I used one person as a pattern then laid the opposite piece of velcro on the first, stick side up. I then simply laid the outfit over it so it would naturally go be attached to the right place.






Here are some of the cute little sets I made.




And then of course I made tons of extra clothing and hair. I wanted to take it a little farther so I made a few simple backdrop using the paper doll cartridge. The delima here was I can't laminate 12 in papers. And staples wanted 4 dollars a piece for them. Spending over 30 to laminate two sets was not keeping this project cheap. So I stuck them in 12X12 scrapbooking page holders I already had and cut off the edges! Then I put velcro in each corner.















To hold all the pieces I bought scrapbook cases from Micheals ($4.00 half off). In the shallow side I places velcro pieces in each corner so she could attach her background. Then I glued a strip of ribbon across with velcro on one side. This keeps the papers nice an tidy.



And here is a view of the case sitting up ready to play!




Or she could lay it down and take it in the car!



Here is the outside of the case, you can see the velcro in the corners. I can't decide....should I decorate the outside....or add more velcro so she can play on top too??




I really love how this came out! And I know she is going to play with it tons because as I was making it I couldn't keep her away from it. I know she's not suppose to see it but she kept coming in and it was only the pieces! I guess it's no different from a toy commercial right??? lol. She keeps asking me for some for her. So I know she's going to be excited! Total cost was $12.00 for two sets! I only had to buy two cases and a pack of velcro dots.

If you want to make your own but don't have a cricut there are many options. Micheals has all kinds of foam and paper cutouts. I saw some people there that would work great! Also scrapbooking stores may have lots of diecuts you could use.....or print off paper doll clipart and laminate! Have fun :)